Marbridge Daily

China's Three Main Telcos Add 6 Mln Mobile Subs in July 2019

Marbridge Consulting, 8/22/19

The listed arms of China's three main telecom operators have announced their subscriber totals for the month of July 2019, including a combined net addition of 6.02 mln mobile subscribers in China to reach a combined mobile subscriber base of almost 1.589 bln. The July figure is almost 23% lower than the average monthly net addition of mobile subs in the preceding 12 months (i.e. July 2018 to June 2019), which was approximately 7.79 mln, and nearly 50% lower than the July 2018 net addition of 11.95 mln.

During the month of July 2019, China's three main operators reported a combined net addition of 14.31 mln 4G subscribers (the majority of which were simply existing 2G or 3G subs who upgraded to 4G) to reach a total combined 4G subscriber base of approximately 1.253 bln. 4G penetration among mobile subscribers hit approximately 78.9%.

China Mobile (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) reported a net addition of 3.59 mln new mobile subscribers, pushing the telecom operator's total mobile user base to 938.64 mln. Of the total, 741.17 mln subscribers used its 4G network during the month. China Mobile saw a net gain of 7.39 mln LTE subs in July. China Mobile added 3.14 mln new fixed-line broadband subscribers (registered accounts) in July, increasing its total fixed-line broadband user base to 178.04 mln.

China Unicom (NYSE: CHU; 0762.HK; 600050.SH) reported a net addition of just 109,000 mobile billing subscribers to reach a total mobile billing user base of 324.46 mln. Of the total, 242.73 mln were 4G subscribers, with a net addition of 3.79 mln LTE subs during the month. China Unicom lost 0.03 mln fixed-line telephone subscribers in July, dropping its total to 54.29 mln. The operator added 0.27 mln fixed-line broadband subscribers (registered accounts) in July, increasing its total to 83.68 mln.

China Telecom (NYSE: CHA; 0728.HK) saw a net increase of 2.32 mln mobile subscribers in July, raising its total to 325.80 mln, of which 269.27 mln were 4G terminal users, with a net increase of 3.13 mln 4G terminal users in July. China Telecom lost 0.45 mln fixed-line telephone subs in July, reducing its total to 113.12 mln. China Telecom gained 0.80 mln new fixed-line broadband subscribers (registered accounts) to reach 150.98 mln (if also including the fixed-line broadband subscribers of China Telecom's (i.e. China Telecom Corporation Limited's) parent company, China Telecommunications Corporation ("CTC"), as of the end of July 2019, the aggregate number of fixed-line broadband subscribers of China Telecom and CTC was 177 mln.)

China Mobile's share of China's total mobile subscriber base as of the end of July 2019 remained unchanged from its June 2019 share of 59.07%, but was down from 60.61% at the end of July 2018. China Unicom's share continued to slide to 20.42%, compared to 20.49% at the end of June 2019 and 20.28% at the end of July 2018, and China Telecom's share grew to 20.50%, up from 20.44% at the end of June 2019 and 19.11% at the end of July 2018.

Mobile Subscriber Stats for China's Three Main Carriers (Unit: Mln)

Keywords: wireless China Telecom China Mobile China Unicom fixed-line broadband penetration telecom 4G mobile subscribers broadband subscribers LTE CHL 0728.HK 0762.HK 0941.HK 600050.SH CHA CHU fixed-line subscribers market share